The 2004 NASCAR Nextel Cup Media Tour hosted by
Lowe’s Motor Speedway came to a close on Thursday, featuring visits
to Roush Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates before
finishing out the tour at Hendrick Motorsports.

Three of Roush Racing’s five full-time Nextel Cup teams made the
Chase for the Championship, with Busch bringing team owner Jack
Roush his second straight Cup title following Matt Kenseth’s
championship run in 2003, a success rate Roush hopes will carry over
into 2005.

Jack Roush

“I won't predict a three-peat, but I think 2005 is going
to
be a great year, no matter what,” Roush said. “I wouldn't predict the
outcome of a horse race or an automobile race, but I will predict that
Mark Martin will not go quietly. I think that speaks volumes.”

Martin’s 2005 season – called the “Salute To You” tour - will be his last
in full time competition in Nextel Cup. Martin made the Chase for the
Nextel Cup and was the sentimental favorite among many to win the title,
but wound up fourth in the final standings.

With four runner-up finishes in the title chase in his career, Martin
would love nothing better than go out on top

“Contending for that championship is probably number one on the agenda,”
Martin said, “but right behind that the Salute To You tour is the
opportunity to thank the fans, give the respect to the media that they
deserve and that we've not always had time to do throughout the years, and
my sponsors and the people in this sport that really made the memories.

“I look forward to 2005. I realize it's going to be the most challenging year
of my career. I've made that commitment to go at it with all the ferocity
that I have and my family has made the same commitment.”

Of the ten drivers in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, no one benefited more
from the new format than Busch. Had the old points system been in effect,
Busch would have finished fourth in the standings, 247 points behind Jeff
Gordon, so far back he would have been mathematically eliminated before
the final race of the year.

While repeating as champion is his goal, the most daunting task facing
Busch for 2005 will be the added responsibilities that comes with being
the champion.

“We had a great season," said Busch. “ It was fun to challenge ourselves
to be at our best during those final 10 races and for us to go out and
repeat is going to be a chore, but that's what our expectations are. We're
going to have some fun while we do it and, of course, there are going to be the
demands of being a champion and going and doing all the different
extra-curricular activities.

“I can't wait to go to the race track next week to get some testing in and
get back to the race car - to get back to what I'm very familiar with and
comfortable with. Nothing short of another championship would meet our
expectations because that's the goal for this next year."

Kenseth and his DeWalt Tools team weren’t able to follow up their 2003
triumph, but they stayed in the hunt throughout the year. After leaving
Daytona ninth in points, the team never fell below 5th in the standings
prior to the Chase, despite winning only two races.

“We always look forward to better things and after winning
the championship in 2003 anything less than that is definitely a letdown,
so it was a letdown to finish the year on kind of a down note, but, yet,
we did have a good year,” Kenseth said. “ We were able to win some races
and had a good time in the Busch Series and the IROC thing was good, so
we're just looking forward to trying to improve on everything we did last
year.”
Entering his third season in NASCAR’S premiere division, 2002 Busch Series
Champion Greg Biffle enjoyed his best season to date, picking up two wins
on his way to a 17th-place points finish – 18 positions better than his
2003 season effort.

“The second half of the season was really good for our team,” Biffle said.
“Doug and I really feel like we've got our cars where we need to be right
now and I feel better, obviously, the best I've ever felt about starting a
Nextel Cup season right now. We feel like we're ready. Improving on some
race tracks that are in the Nextel Cup chase the last 10 and then making
the chase, I think, is going to be the key.”

For Edwards, fresh up from the Craftsman Truck Series where he notched six
wins for Roush, 2005 will be a trial by fire, running the full Nextel Cup
and NASCAR Busch Series schedule.

“It's a pretty demanding schedule, but I'm just really excited about it.
The more racing the better,” said Edwards. “Jack says they're going to try
real hard to burn me out a little bit this season, but I don't know if
it's possible. We'll see.

“I think anything less than a championship in the Busch Series will be a
disappointment for us. I know it's a high expectation considering my
experience in the Busch Series and we'd like to be in that top 10 chase,
obviously, in the Cup car but those are very lofty goals. I think if we do
our work and lean on my teammates, who have obviously had a lot of
success, we can do it."

Ganassi Racing

Moving on, the tour next visited the shop of Chip Ganassi
Racing with Felix Sabates. Team owner Chip Ganassi and drivers Sterling
Marlin, Jamie McMurray and Casey Mears welcomed the media to the team’s
brand new, state-of-art facility, which officially opened last year.

2004 was a disappointing year for Ganassi, with all three
Nextel Cup teams going winless for the second year in a row.

“During 2004 we began to see more consistency in all three teams,” said
Ganassi “I think that’s a testament to the way we’ve turned this thing
around. We’re operating as one team. Every team here has the same
resources and the same equipment. They share information. The only
difference in the teams is our people.”

To that end, Ganassi completely re-vamped Marlin’s no. 40 Coors Light team
after their disappointing 21st-place showing in the final points, bringing
in a new crew and new crew chief Steve Boyer.

“The backbone of the company is the No. 40 Coors Light team,” Ganassi
said. “ Last year the 40 team did not perform to our expectations, so we
sat down and had to make some significant changes. We did some
restructuring, including making Steve Boyer the crew chief. We’ve reworked
almost the entire pit crew, and we expect to see some significant
improvement in the 40 car this season.

“I think the addition of Steve Boyer as my new crew chief is going to be a
big plus,” Marlin said. “I don't know if I'd say I'm under a lot of
pressure because there's no doubt in my mind that we are getting things
headed in the right direction. We didn't have all that bad of a season
last year because we had so much bad luck when we were in contention to
win races.”

McMurray enjoyed his best season yet in Nextel Cup, racking up an
impressive 23 top-10 and 9 top-5 finishes, including two second-place
showings. However, McMurray missed the mark where it counted most – no
wins, and, more importantly, no Chase, missing the cut by a mere 15
points.

“We’re not going to do anything different,” said McMurray. “We’ll just go
out every week and do the exact same thing we did the second half of last
season. We’ve got the same group of people and it’s our third year
together. I think one of the most encouraging things for me this year, my
first year we started our race team. That’s tough on an organization when
you start a brand new team. The majority of racing is mental.”

Mears faired far better in his second season in Nextel Cup, moving up from
35th in the standings in 2003 to 22nd this past season. While the no. 41
Target team managed to put together a good run of top-10 finishes during
five of ten races early in the season, they also had four finishes of 32nd
or worse during the same stretch.

Mears’ key word for 2005? Consistency.

“The thing we didn’t have last year was consistency,” Mears said. “We’d be
good at one track and then the next track we weren’t any good at all. We
need to pick up where we left off. Several times we ran in the top five
and just couldn’t finish it off. We’ve got to put the last quarter of the
race together and be more consistent, focus on the 26 races leading up to
The Chase.”

Rick Hendrick

Closing out the 2004 NASCAR Nextel Cup Media Tour was a
stop at Hendrick Motorsports complex, where team owner Rick Hendrick and
drivers Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Terry Labonte, Brian Vickers and Kyle
Busch showcased their new shop for Labonte and Busch’s Kellogg’s team as
well as Vickers’ GMAC team.

2004 started out with so much promise for the Hendrick organization.
Coming off the 2003 season with Gordon and Johnson both finishing in the
top five and Vickers winning the Busch Series title, the team stood poised
to celebrate their 20th anniversary with their sights set on winning the
championship in both series.

All that changed on October 24, when a Hendrick Motorsports plane crashed
into a Virginia mountainside en route to the Nextel Cup race at
Martinsville.

All ten people aboard were killed, including Rick Hendrick’s brother, John
and John’s daughters Jennifer and Kimberly, as well as team general
manager Jeff Turner and chief engine builder Randy Dorton.

Also killed was Rick Hendrick’s son Ricky, the heir apparent to his father
and the owner of Vickers’ and Busch’s cars.

Ricky had helped plan the new shop for his teams. The goal, says Rick
Hendrick, is for the two teams to reap the benefits of working together in
the same shop the way the no. 24 and no. 48 teams have done.

“The way I can honor Ricky, my brother, my nieces and Randy is to make
this place the best it can be,” said Hendrick. “I've always been a firm
believer in having two cars working under one roof. We've got over 500
people who are committed to getting all of our teams and drivers where
they need to be. But it's not about having nice facilities, it's about the
talent and chemistry of the people.”

It’s been four months and the wounds are still there, but the team
soldiers on.

Thursday, Hendrick introduced his son-in-law Marshall Carlson as the new
team’s General Manager and Jeff Andrews as head the engine department. Jim
Wall will serve as director of engine engineering.

A week after the tragedy, the team wiped away their tears and went to the
track to do what they do best – race....and win.

When the checkered flag fell it was Johnson in victory lane for the third
week in a row. It was, as Johnson said, the “best medicine.”

Trailing Busch by 18 points heading into the final race of the year,
Johnson ended up missing out on his first championship by a slim 8-point
margin – the closest finish in Nextel Cup history.

Looking back, Johnson believes he and his team made the right calls over
the final ten races.

“You do all that you can,” said Johnson. “We had some big points losses in
the final ten, but then again everyone did – Kurt (Busch) had an engine
failure at Atlanta, Jeff (Gordon) lost a gear, everybody can look back and
say ‘should have, would have’, but I feel very good about every decision
we made along the way, and we did all that we could. Sure, we wish we had
those eight points, but we’re not going to look back on it and say ‘if
only we’d done this.’”

Of all the drivers in the Chase, Gordon should have been the most
outspoken critic of the new Chase for the Nextel Cup points system. Under
the old points system, Gordon would have been the 2004 champion, beating
out Johnson by 47 points.

Gordon is calling his quest or the 2005 title – his fifth – the “Drive For
5 in ’05.”

“You have to race the points the way they’re structured,” Gordon said,
“you can always go back and say “boy, I wish they changed the points
system one year later’, but other teams might have raced the points system
if the old points system had been in place. I like the new points system,
I think it’s exciting. We have to win it based on how the points are now,
not how they were, and that’s our goal.”

After 27 seasons, 22 wins and two championships, Labonte will run a
limited schedule in 2005 and 2006 in the #44 Chevy. Called “Shifting Gears
– Lone Star Style”, Labonte’s 10-race schedule in 2005 will culminate on
Nov. 6 at Texas Motor Speedway.

"I'm going to have a lot more free time now that I'm running a limited
schedule. It's going to be weird because I've been racing in this series
full time for the last 26 years. We've got a good program put together and
I'm looking forward to the new season. I really don't know what to
expect.”

Busch, brother of 2004 Nextel Cup Champion Kurt Busch, will take over the
driving duties of the #5 Kellogg’s Chevy from Labonte, who is stepping
back from the full-time grind.

Taking over the #5 Busch Series from Vickers in 2004, Busch won the Rookie
of the Year title in the Busch Series, tying or breaking eight Raybestos
Rookie records, including most wins (5) and most top-fives (16) by a
rookie. He fought a spirited battle with Martin Truex, Jr. for the Busch
Series title but ended up finishing second to Truex.

“We've got a tremendous amount of momentum coming off the great year we
had last season in the Busch Series,” said Busch. “I'm very lucky because
I've got a bunch of great teammates and I'm going to be relying on them a
lot. When I can walk up and ask a guy like Jimmie Johnson for advice,
that's information that's invaluable that I can use to my advantage."

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